[thaumasiotes]

> I always found it interesting (although frightening) that rabies cause hydrophobia.

Well, there are two potential senses of "hydrophobia".

In its primary use, it means "rabies", and it's not really interesting that rabies would cause that.

In rare cases, it could mean "fear of water", which rabies doesn't cause. Rabies causes pain when swallowing. The pain causes fear through conventional mechanisms.

[sebtron]

I have not checked the sources, but according to Wikipedia [1]:

Rabies has also occasionally been referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") throughout its history. It refers to a set of symptoms in the later stages of an infection in which the person has difficulty swallowing, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench their thirst. Saliva production is greatly increased, and attempts to drink, or even the intention or suggestion of drinking, may cause excruciatingly painful spasms of the muscles in the throat and larynx. Since the infected individual cannot swallow saliva and water, the virus has a much higher chance of being transmitted, because it multiplies and accumulates in the salivary glands and is transmitted through biting.

It seems more than just "pain when swallowing".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

[dotancohen]

It does seem like your comment for the most part supports the GP comment, other than the disagreement about the definition of pain.

For what it's worth, I see the word pain as he used it to be a better fit than the word fear, as in phobia.

[wongarsu]

I feel like calling "shows panic when presented with liquids to drink" a fear of water is a perfectly fine shorthand. Even if it might not be a literal fear of all forms of water, only water you are supposed to drink

[withinboredom]

Pain doesn’t cause panic.

[kruffalon]

Sure, I don't know how it works physiologically...

But anecdata at least suggests that being in enough pain can cause panic, but it might do so indirectly so that the fear is created around the inability to think the pain will ever end or at least lessen at least a bit.

[withinboredom]

My leg has been fucked for 15 years. Sometimes it hurts so bad, I’d need narcotics to make it go away. I don’t panic when walking, I just deal with it because I need to get to my destination. If you are thirsty, you will drink through the pain. Panic is something else.

[kruffalon]

I'm sorry that you have that pain in the first place but I'm glad that you are able to process being in pain without getting into a panic.

[imchillyb]

Panic is a learned behavior.

Exposure to a stimulus is often both cause and trigger.

How is it that you’re an adult and still don’t know this.

Toddlers know this.

[pockmarked19]

It does.

If I come into the room and stab you with a steak knife every time you drink, and sometimes even if you only think about drinking, you will definitely panic when drinking is brought up in the future, after some time.

Not sure what's wrong with you that you cannot empathize.

[withinboredom]

As someone who has most definitely been in more shit than most humans on this planet, I can empathize just fine.

As I mentioned in a sibling comment, I think you've confused fear with panic. Fear can be conditioned, panic cannot. You can panic from fear, but it is not a guaranteed thing, and often, that panic is long after the fear is gone (aka PTSD).

Panic is an autonomic response to saving yourself at all costs. It is not something you "learn" or have "conditioned" into you, and if so, definitely not over the course of a few weeks that you have a virus; otherwise we'd all be dead from Covid and go into a panic every time we cough.

Panic is what causes you to drown a person saving you, so that you can breathe. Panic is what causes you to over-correct and steer into a tree. Panic is what causes you to run out of your house, in the middle of winter in pajamas, because there was a spider. Panic has a cause, but it is mindless with the only goal of saving oneself. The action itself is often quite stupid-looking, in hindsight and lack of context.

Most people have never seen a person panic, first-hand. Most people have never panicked. Today's world is largely safe, so it is easy to confuse fear with panic.

[ImPostingOnHN]

Not sure that's comparable to a situation where a virus like Rabies causes someone to inherently fear water, regardless of pain.

[gosub100]

Deep water doesn't cause pain, yet a significant portion of people would panic upon being dropped into it.

[GuB-42]

It is probably a bit of both.

From the same Wikipedia article

> symptoms can include slight or partial paralysis, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, abnormal behavior, paranoia, terror, and hallucinations

There is more than just pain here. The virus changes the host behavior, making it more aggressive, so it is very possible that it also promotes a panic reaction to pain.